Let's Try That Again

I thought I was going to be able to ease back into my routines last week but, alas, it was not in the cards.  Relapses are funny things, they hit you hardest when least expected.  But after a second week of pampering myself by taking two more sick days, eating soft foods, consuming what seemed like gallons of cough meds, a truckload of cough drops and a tanker full of chicken broth; I am feeling a bit more like myself.  Not quite all the way back, still hacking incessantly, but more like myself nonetheless.

So, easing back into my stitching routines: I find I wanted a completely fresh start to celebrate the return to a semblance of health. To that end, I pulled Pineberry Lane's Autumn on Marigold Lane out of the To-Do Binder that resides in my Current Stitching Bag.  As most of my readers know, I am stitching from stash at the present so I made a number of substitutions.  First, the linen: the chart calls for 30ct R & R Reproductions Broomstick Brown linen, for which I substituted a 40ct. mystery linen in a very similar light brown.  Obviously my end product will be smaller than the 8"w x 7.5"h stitched model.  That's okay though since I prefer to make my 6"w x 5.25"h sampler into the center of a tote.  Second, the fibers:  I had three of the recommended GAST flosses in stash: Tarnished Gold, Gold Leaf and Onyx.  But for Wood Trail, I substituted a Ltd. Ed. Brown that was just a shade lighter; for Endive, I substituted Chives; and for Wheat Fields, I substituted Harvest Basket.  As is often the case with over dyed dye lots, I had two cards of Harvest Basket, one card substantially darker than the other.  I chose to use the lighter card since it more closely approximated the DMC equivalent cited for Wheat Fields.  It's amazing just how much variation there is in over dyed skeins with the same name and, presumably, the same formula.  

That left Autumn Leaves for which I don't have a proximate match in either my GAST or WDW stash.  I do have an Autumn Leaves in Gloriana silk that would work nicely so far as color is concerned.  While I am not one of those folks who thinks mixing fibers is a taboo, I am still thinking about this.  The whole piece is very plain in the Quaker sense of the word, not the least bit showy, very simple.  The silk could spoil the entire mood of the sampler.  I may just have to break down and order a card of GAST Autumn Leaves.  Pineberry Lane's style is very similar to Primitive Needle's, which is the main reason I like it so much.  I don't ordinarily think "silk" when choosing floss for Primitive Needle pieces and I think the same rule will apply for Pineberry Lane projects.

There will be pictures in the next few days ... as soon as I get past the boring, non-spectacular bits: the monochrome alphabet and side divider.